unimaginably grateful

God of snow and ice,
of howling wind and numbing wind chill,
of polar vortices, blinding blizzard
and temperatures falling into frost
biting, bitter cold,
remind us not just to locate You in warmth—
in the comfort and safety of where we want to be,
but also, precisely, in all the danger
and discomfort of the harsh extremes
we want, above all else, to avoid.

For You, as answer to prayer,
are not just our hope of getting out of what’s hard,
but present with us in the very midst of it.

In the warmth, we may not know that significance—
may not understand it.
But when we find ourselves where we don’t want to be,
we will then know ourselves to be,
unimaginably,
grateful.